Shooters forced to settle for bronze

Tejaswini Sawant was expected to replicate her World Championship performance in the 50m rifle prone women pairs event at the Karni Singh Shooting Ranges on Monday.

Perhaps, the pressure of expectation got to the Kolhapur shooter, and she, along with Meena Kumari, could manage a bronze on one of the most disappointing days for the host marksmen, who have been reaping gold by the bagful.

The import of a solitary bronze in two events on Monday wasn’t lost on National coach Sunny Thomas, who said it was a very disappointing performance. For someone who is capable of shooting 597, it was a big letdown as Sawant she could manage just 583, which perhaps she wouldn’t even shoot in national competitions and trials.

Tejaswini (583) and Meena (585) — a product of the Army Marksmanship Unit — aggregated 1168. The competition in itself was quite mediocre with the gold going to Scotland’s Jan McIntosh (591) and Kay Copland (578) with an aggregate of 1169. The yellow metal was decided on the basis of ‘inner 10s’ after the score of the Scottish and the England team — Michelle Smith and Sharon Lee — was tied on 1169. Scotland had 60 ‘inner 10s’, to England’s 52.

“I am feeling a little bad after losing by one point,” said Sawant. On her unimpressive performance, she said, “I got over-conscious because I didn’t want to commit a mistake. My coach also told me that I was getting worked up,” the World champion in Munich recently, said.

On Meena’s performance, she said, “Meena was stressed because it was her only event.”

In skeet, the pair of Mairaj Khan (94/100) and AD Peoples (92) finished fifth with an aggregate of 186, with the gold going to the Cyprus duo of Georgios Achilleos and Andreas Chasikos (194), which was equal to the Games record.

AD Peoples was not too happy with an Australian referees’ decision to give a ‘bird loss’ and felt it should have been a ‘no bird’. It cost him a point.